Inaugural Capital City Charity Labor Day Tournament in Sacramento is a Huge Success
Submitted by Alan Van Ness, Sacramento MSBL League President
The inaugural Capital City Labor Day Tournament, sponsored by the Sacramento Men’s Senior Baseball League, is a wrap, and five champions were crowned. $7,500 was also raised to benefit the Nor Cal Cops (Concerns of Police Survivors) from a raffle and silent auction. A good time was had by all!
Here is the gallery of champions:
Here are the championship game results:
18 Division – Sacramento Red Sox over Folsom Angels 3-1
30 Division – Sacramento Brewers over Scorpions 9-6
45 Division – Sacramento Capitals over Tri-Valley Astros 14-4
55 Division – Tri-Valley Tribute over Sacramento Valley Cats 18-8
65 Division – Sacramento Tribe over Tri-Valley Antiques 7-0 (forfeit win)
Daunte Freeman put on quite the show at the home run contest. He isn’t really such a big kid but he was hitting like Pete Alonzo! He hit 30+ homers and won the Wood Bat contest easily with 59 points. In this contest, you get five points for over the fence, three if you hit the fence, and one point if you one-hop the fence. Our fields are very big at 395 feet to center and 335 down the lines.
In the Aluminum Bat division there were not as many home runs but he was tied at the end of that one. Then there was a five-pitch, swing-off for overtime. Daunte went last. The second swing of his cleared the fence by a mile, game over. He won $250 in gift cards from Dicks Sporting Goods. It was $100 for each winner then $50 extra for the winner between the two.
The Charity we raised money for was Nor Cal COPS (Concerns of Police Survivors). We proudly broke our record of $5500 and raised $7,500.00. The President of COPS, Susan Moody, and some of her support people made the trip from San Jose to help with the raffle and sell their merchandise to raise funds.
Teena Van Ness spent two months creating COPS and SMSBL Capital City merchandise to sell. She also created over 50 gift baskets for the raffle. All proceeds were a big reason we accomplished the $7500. It also was Teena’s idea to have a silent auction, which was a huge fundraiser.
The BBQ was to feed 500 people but due to the heat, maybe 300+ showed up. The Saturday temperature was a cool 105. Sunday was a brutal 113 and on the field who knows how much higher. By Monday, Sacramento set its all-time record of 115 degrees and the airport recorded a blistering 118.
The morning Championship games were scheduled for the 18 and 30 Championships, as those two divisions were #1 vs #2 seeds from round robin. Then the afternoon games for the older Divisions couldn’t start until 2:00 pm for the 45’s and 2:30 for the 55’s. The 55 and 65 were the largest Divisions with seven teams in each.
The 65 Antiques had enough by the time the playoff game was over, so due to injuries and the excessive heat they decided to go back to the Bay Area. So, the Sacramento Tribe added to their mountain of Championships.